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Qualifying

The big news from qualifying has to be Lewis Hamilton. The 7 time World Champion failed to get out of Q1 and could only achieve 16th whilst his team mate, George Russell, managed to lift himself to 6th.

Q1 was a disrupted session with Nicholas Latifi putting his Williams into the wall, resulting in a red flag whilst the 2 Ferrari's were about to set their fastest laps. It wouldn't be the last time Latifi would crash out last weekend, and it wouldn't be the last time that Ferrari would set a quick lap.

If Q1 was dramatic for Hamilton, it had nothing on Q2 for Mick Schumacher. He spectacularly lost control of his Haas and ended up in a concrete wall. Having seen it in real-time and the speed that he was going at, it shows the miracle of modern F1 cars that he wasn't seriously hurt.

Qualifying was once again dominated by Red Bull and Ferrari though. Sergio Perez coming out on top to get his first pole position at his 215th Grand Prix - a new record in the sport. I can't decide if this is a good record to hold but with many drivers never securing a pole position, it's not a bad one.

Leclerc, Sainz and Verstappen completed the front 2 rows of the grid, setting up another enticing Red Bull v. Ferrari race.

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Race Summary

As expected, Ferrari and Red Bull battled it out for the entire 50 laps with Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen out in front. Perez had led the first 16 laps but having pitted early and Nicholas Latifi continuing his habit of driving into a wall, a virtual safety car allowed Leclerc, Verstappen and Sainz a cheap pit stop dropping the Mexican down to 4th, after an infringement with Sainz exiting the pits, narrowly ahead leading him to concede his 3rd place.

After another Virtual Safety for the retirements of Fernando Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo, on lap 42 the excitement really kicked in. Verstappen had managed his tyres better and having caught up with Leclerc, made an easy overtake going into the final corner. Verstappen unable to turn down an overtaking opportunity, didn't realise that Leclerc had let him do this before the DRS activation zone, allowing Leclerc an easy overtake to retake 1st position. The same DRS activation zone that provided drama in 2021 when Verstappen broke suddenly, forcing Lewis Hamilton to rear-end him.

On the following lap, Verstappen was wise to his mistake and tried to hang back. Leclerc saw this and slowed down again, forcing Verstappen into a harsh break which allowed Leclerc to quickly power away and maintain his lead. A great game of cat and mouse.

One Lap 46, Verstappen finally got it right and Leclerc was helpless in preventing Verstappen's overtake. It proved to be the deciding move in another exciting Grand Prix.

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Race 2 Points

With Charles Leclerc as his Turbo Driver supported by Sergio Perez and backed up with the Red Bull team, it's @titopx who comes away as the top scorer with 194, narrowly beating @frafiomatale on 187.

Congratulations @titopx, please reply to this post to claim your 5 Steem Prize 🏆

Overall Rankings

The pack has been shuffled this week with last week's leader @gabikay dropping to 4th in the rankings and @the-gorilla replacing him at the top. @titopx's good score moves him up to 2nd with @dave25 completing the top 3.

Po.	Player	Points
1st	@the-gorilla	370
2nd	@titopx	357
3rd	@dave25	337
4th	@gabikay	334
5th	@esteban85	329
6th	@frafiomatale	306
7th	@eve73	272
8th	@chrislybear	233
9th	@fuentesjo3006	213
10th	@weasell	206
11th	@wentv	139

Late Entries Welcome

It's a long season with another 21 races expected. With weekly prizes up for grabs, there's plenty of Steem still to be won so please read this post for more information on how to join.

Please Share Your Thoughts

I'm always interested in reading your views about Fantasy Sports or Sport in general either in the comments or via your own post, remembering to post in World of Xpilar and using the tag #woxsports or #woxfantasysports.

This is a sub-profile of @the-gorilla